Illegal Beijing church continues to hold services despite government intervention

Shouwang Church, also known as Lighthouse, is what is known as an illegal house church, a church that exists outside the area of state-controlled churches in China. The government in China is publicly atheist as well as Communist, and has repeatedly evicted the group from its meeting area.

In response, the church said that it would meet outside instead of trying to hide from the government.

The government has detained the church's leaders and on Sunday, for the second week in a row, detained many of the members who attempted to worship outside after the eviction in a public plaza.

The arrests of the parishioners were explained by the government as a reaction to anti-political activity, though the church claimed that its gatherings had nothing to do with politics. The government took more than 100 of the worshipers to unknown locations after boarding them on buses.

Following the event, Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, said in a statement of the U.S. state department's annual human rights report that the church members who were detained were expressing their "internationally recognized right to free expression" and asked that they all be released from custody of the government. Later on, they released all but three members of the group.